


A New Frontier

by amonkeysue



Series: because I knew you [6]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Avengers Tower Domesticity, Gen, Jane Foster & Natasha Romanov Friendship, Jane loves Star Trek, Minor Astrophysics, Minor Clint Barton, Minor Jane Foster/Thor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-12-21 06:31:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21070439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amonkeysue/pseuds/amonkeysue
Summary: There's plenty of adjustment inherent to settling in at Avengers Tower. Jane isn't sure what she expected Natasha to be in person, but she does know that being casual with the Black Widow is one of the last things she anticipated.





	A New Frontier

**Author's Note:**

> I can and will be stuck in post-Avengers 'everyone's living in the Tower' world forever, especially since more Jane and Nat is something I've wanted to do for a while!

2:31 AM.

Jane blinked at the phone as if that would somehow change the numbers before giving a small sigh and rubbing at her eyes with the back of her hand before brushing a few loose bits of hair back behind her ears.

She had not been expecting to get quite so pulled in on paper reading, but, well, they were fascinating reads on gravitational waves from black holes and figuring out more about dark matter.

With an involuntary yawn she put the paper aside and pulled herself up out of the chair to trod over to the Tower kitchen. Early morning or not, she still wasn’t tired enough to actually sleep and it wasn’t like either of her usual conversational partners were there.

Black hole gravitational waves were ringing out in detectable tones and informed what infant black holes grew to be, black holes themselves were shown to be hairless, but there was a chance they weren’t actually looking at black holes and it could be a wormhole…

One part of her brain said coffee. The other part said that she still wanted to try to sleep before the next morning.

Going for hot chocolate was an easy decision, especially as it seemed to always be in stock at the Tower.

With a mug in hand, Jane opted to settle in the lounge for a little bit, taking in the New York skyline view as she drank.

She didn’t realize she’d been slipping into sleep until she processed someone else taking the mug from her hand.

“Mm… hmm?” Jane forced herself to blink back into awareness, shifting forward. “Sorry, I didn’t realize I was falling asleep,” she murmured, followed by a yawn.

Natasha set the mug squarely down on the coffee table. “You’re fine, Dr. Foster.” She politely smiled. “It’s late enough anyhow.”

“Or early enough.”

Natasha arched a brow. “Is three in the morning typically early for you?”

“No, this is, uh, actually late. I was trying not to sleep after having accidentally gotten this far, but apparently not.” Jane dismissively waved a hand before pausing. “Can I ask what has you up at the same time and running around since it is three in the morning?”

“Early morning mission call. SHIELD doesn’t exactly wait for the nine to five.” Right, she was dressed in her official uniform and fully geared up by the looks of it. Natasha glanced up at the ding of the elevator, momentarily breaking into an affectionate smile with a serious nod. “Anything I can help you with before we head out, Dr. Foster?”

“Uh, thanks, but I think I’ll go back to my room now, actually. Use the bed rather than the couch.” Jane stood, giving Clint a polite greeting smile as she turned around. “Best of luck on the mission.”

He smiled back and raised one hand to wave at her as she walked past to the elevator. “Thanks, Dr. Foster.”

She waved back. “And thank you for looking out for me, Agent Romanoff.”

“You can call me Natasha if you’d like, Dr. Foster.”

She pushed the button for the elevator and looked back over her shoulder with a small smile. “Jane. Just Jane works.”

“Have a good rest of your night, Jane,” Natasha called back to her before she stepped into the elevator.

So she was on a first name basis with the Black Widow, apparently. Life with the Avengers was certainly shaping up to be plenty interesting.

\--

“More hot chocolate or just coffee now?” Natasha wryly asked as she passed Jane in the kitchen the following morning.

“Just coffee, I figure later in the morning’s a much better time for it,” Jane lightly said before awkwardly taking another sip. “Did your mission go okay?”

“About as well as I expected it to.”

The beep of the microwave to signal that her muffins were ready saved Jane from having to come up with a direct reply. She was quick to grab them out, watching Natasha pour out a cup of milk in her peripheral and snag some sort of homemade protein bar lookalike.

“Uh, Natasha, can I ask you something a little weird?”

Natasha gave what Jane was quickly figuring to be a semi-characteristic eyebrow raise. “How weird are we talking?”

“There’s one piece of my equipment that’s gotten a little sticky recently so that it needs two people to properly shift the instrumentation around, and normally I would just ask either Darcy or Thor but since they’re both gone for the next couple of days I was wondering if you might be willing to help?”

“That shouldn’t be a problem.”

Jane broke into a relieved smile with a little nod. “Then thank you, again.” She held up a muffin. “Let me just go through these and then we can head down?”

“Breakfast before work is generally a good idea,” Natasha agreed, slightly raising her milk as she spoke.

In the elevator Jane felt at a loss for whether to try to make any small talk with her or just wait out the several floors in silence.

Natasha casually started a few seconds into the elevator ride. “Thor wouldn’t stop gushing about how close you’re getting to establishing the basis of a consistent communication link through the realms on our last op.”

Apparently she did still blush a little to hear that Thor was speaking her praises to his friends, especially in the middle of work. “Ah, yeah,” she started to say with a little laugh, “it’s getting there. I feel like I still need another trip to Asgard’s Hall of Science to confirm a few more things, but I’m also hoping I’ve got some really promising data this morning.”

Natasha nodded, her expression bespeaking genuine interest. “What are you looking for with this?”

Finishing the elevator ride and the walk to the lab with a beginning explanation of her running theory and what research she had been conducting completely vanquished any of Jane’s small talk fears and she quickly shifted into instructions on just where to push and hold while she shifted the actual instrumentation.

While Jane started checking all the data that had run overnight, Natasha casually wandered through the space, taking in all the little characteristic touches in the lab and across Jane’s equipment.

She stopped and tapped a finger on a sticker attached to the back of a monitor. “Star Trek, right?”

“Hmm?” Jane took a second to register what she was asking about and smiled. “Oh, yeah. Darcy thought I could use something more Trekkie in the lab.” She paused. “Are you familiar with it, or…?”

Natasha shrugged with one shoulder. “I think I’ve watched an episode or two while stuck in medical. Clint likes it casually and it seems interesting enough, but I’ve never put the time into it.”

Jane looked between the data and Natasha, her brow furrowed in thought before she replied. “If you’d be interested at all, I’m definitely always interested in an excuse to rewatch some episodes. I’d want to process this data first, but if you don’t have anything else to do tonight, maybe then?”

“In the lounge or your room?”

“In my room, if that’s okay? I don’t love the idea of Tony interrupting with wry comments.”

Natasha laughed. “Your room then, I’ll bring the popcorn.”


End file.
